Ukraine (MNN) — Ukraine has been in crisis for two years now, with no reprieve in sight.
(Photo courtesy of Force for Christ via Facebook)
“They’re fighting a conflict on multiple fronts, not just from aggression in the east, but also from being a fairly new democracy and also having dealt with some corruption from within their own high up ranks and their own high up officials,” says Chad LaForce with Force for Christ.
The Ministry of Infrastructure offered money to corrupt businessmen who had connections with Ukraine’s parliament, government reformer Andriy Pyvovarsky reported.
Ukraine’s economy has taken a plunge after the corruption, and crisis broke out. Exchange rates have taken drastic swings. Currently, one Ukrainian Hryvnia is equal to about three U.S. cents.
Because of the violence and economic depression in the country, people–especially those still stuck in the east–have suffered greatly.
“It takes a human toll on them,” LaForce says. “While the populous of Ukraine is very strong, confident, strong-willed people, it’s difficult to have a conflict and a war really in your country for months or years on end like that.”
(Photo courtesy of Force for Christ via Facebook)
Families have not known stability for the past two years when conflict and fighting broke out. They rarely leave the house to get food, which has become increasingly expensive; there is constant fear of being killed by bombs or snipers, and infrastructure is deteriorating.
Hope is hanging by a thread.
“Can they save themselves? I think they’re doing a really good job of that, but I also think that they need help,” says LaForce.
Being such a young and vulnerable independent country, Ukraine is depending on the money promised from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to survive another day–a $17.5 billion bailout.
The Washington Post reported that Christine Lagarde, IMF’s head, threatened to cut off aid “without a substantial new effort to invigorate governance reforms and fight corruption.” Despite the conflict, corruption is still running rampant and people’s faith in the government is quickly deteriorating.
The people are looking for hope.
“They need prayers. They need help from Christian people around the world that will take up their cause in prayer,” LaForce says.
(Photo courtesy of Force for Christ)
“The children over there specifically need our help because the need is really great. I think that need is somewhat bigger than what Ukraine is prepared to bear the burden of at this present time.”
In the wake of so much violence are children who have been orphaned.
“They’ve seen some devastation. Some of them have seen some really tragic things, and some of them have had tragic loss just in the past couple of years.”
The conflict has caused many of them to change completely, going from excited and happy children to quiet and haunted souls.
But, Force for Christ is reinvigorating kids and literally changing their lives through their hosting program.
(Photo courtesy of Force for Christ)
Twice a year, Ukrainian orphans are brought to the U.S. to live with a Christian American family for a period of 4-6 weeks. They learn about the hope and love of Jesus and experience the stability of a loving family.
“The greatest need right now really is that these young people need American families to step up and be willing to host them,” LaForce explains.
Fill out the pre-application and ask God where you should go next. The pre-application has no strings attached: it’s simply for Force for Christ staff to get to know you.
Right now, the need is greater than the response. Force for Christ is looking for families willing to host children and share Christ’s love.
“We need Christian families to be able to step out of their comfort zone, to want to be able to embrace these children, to recognize that this is a ministry that God has called us to.”
As a Christian, I pray for the people in Ukraine regularly. But I think your effort is misdirected. How can Ukrainian children benefit from 4-6 weeks in a US family, so that they can then go back to war-torn Ukraine?? It does not make sense.
Are you not ignoring the unhappy fact that the present government in Kiev was installed after the CIA/US State Dept. putsch on 2/22/2014 that ousted a legitimately elected government. Are y ou not ignoring the fact that CIA Director J. Brennan went to Kiev in April 2014 to start the war against the Eastern provinces. I donot think the US or the EU has Ukraine’s best interests at heart. The IMF is going to restructure Ukraine’s economy, strip U. of its resources via US corporations, and sell lots of NATO weapons to the Baltics, to Poland, and to Scandinavia–mostly in order to make Russia look bad. The US govt. h as no real interest in Ukraine’s welfare or in its people. It is all a lie, engineered by the D.C. neo-Cons.